r 594 
. B83 
:opy l 



Chicago and the Sources of Her 
Past and Future Growth. 



A Paper Read before the Chicago Historical 
Society, 

Tuesday Evening January 20th, 1880. 



William Bross, A. M., 

Lieutenant Governor of Illinois. 186; 



CHICAGO : 

JANSEN, MoOI-URGS <v CO 

1880. 



Chicago and the Sources of Her 
Past and Future Growth. 



A Paper Read before the Chicago Historical 
Society, 

Tuesday Evening January '20th. 1880. 



William Bross, A. .M.. 
ii 

Lieutenant Governor of Illinois. 1865 9. 



CHICAGO: 

JANSKN. \I.« I A K< ■ & CO. 

1880. 



f s 



q4 



Historical Society Rooms. 

Chicago, January 21, r88o. 

Ex- Lieutenant Governor William Bross : 

Dear Sir: / have the honor lo- 
in for m von thai at a nice ting of the Chicago Historical Society, held 
last evening, the following resolution, introduced by S. If. Kerfoot. 
Esq., was unanimously adopted: 

"RESOLVED, That/4he interesting and valuable historical and 
siiitisfical f ape/is read by Gov. Bross, the thanks of this Society are 
due and are hereby tendered, and that he be requested to furnish a 
copy of the same for publication.'' 

I 'cry Respectfully. 

Albert I). Hager, 

Secretary. 



Chicago and the Sources of her Pkst 
and Future Growth. 

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: 

Changing the language of Webster slightly t<> suit the purpose of 
this article, " I shall enter on no encomium upon Chicago. She needs 
none. Here she is and here she will remain forever. The past is at 
least secure, and of this every citizen of Chicago is justly proud: 
and what she is now and what she is likely to become as time rolls 
onward, can only he understood by a careful survey of the extent 
and the character of the country in which are the sources of her past 
and future growth. Her site was not selectedby somegreat conquerer, 
like that id' Constantinople. Palmyra, and Alexandria, with reference 
to the channels of commerce than existing, and which the capricious 
changes of the currents of trade have reduced to comparative insig- 
nificance. Instead id' being merely on one of those channels liable 
to he diverted bypolitical revulsions ami ever-changing natural causes, 
the channels of trade for the .North American Continent all point to 
and converge in a focus at Chicago. Her commanding commercial 
position at the head of the great lakes was known to the Indians cen- 
turies before the brave old French explorers found it. Nature, it is 
believed, or. to speak more reverently. He who is the Author of Na- 
ture, selected the site of this great city, not till next May forty-three 
years old", and hence her future will not be subject to those causes 
which have paralyzed or destroyed many of the cities of past 
ages. Let us trace some of the lines of her traffic, especially those 
from the westward, and note the character of the country from which 
and through which they come. 



N. B. — The latest and bcsi map of the United States should be 
before the reader while perusing this paper. 



In what follows reliance is had mainly Oil personal observation, and 
hence I trust I shall be forgiven for the frequent use of the personal 
pronoun. Whatever of the country 1 have aot seen myself 1 have 
seen through the eves of others who in the aggregate had explored 
almost every square mile of it. 

On the 28th of May last 1 started for a trip to the Northwest, and, 
after visiting Winnipeg, the Capital of the thrifty little Dominion 
Province of Manitoba, 1 arrived at Fort Benton, in Montana, on the 
2<lth of June. This town is at the head of steamboat navigation on 
the .Missouri River. On the 8th of September 1 left for a trip to the 
Southwest, and. after visiting Denver. Leadville. and Silver Cliff. 
spent Friday, Sept. 26th, at Las Vegas, New .Mexico. Thus I had 
traveled over two sides of an immense triangle, of whose sides, one to 
Fort Benton, in a direct line, and not as traveled, is 1,180 miles long, 
and that to Las Vegas is 1,040, and the base line, skirting- along the 
eastern foot-hills and at some points over the Rocky Mountains, is 
!><)<> miles. 

What is the character of the country contained within this vast 
triangle, and what are its relations to the prosperity and the growth 
of Chicago. 

FIRST, AS TO ITS EXTENT. 
In 1855, after carefully studying the map, I became convinced 
(here were about 700,000 square miles of territory between Lake 
Michigan and the Rocky Mountains, whose trade would surely come 
to Chicago. I so stated before the convention of delegates from the 
leading lake cities to promote the building of the Huron and On- 
tario Ship Canal, held in Toronto on the L3th of September, IS.")."). 
The estimate has never been disputed, and it agrees very nearly with 
the figures of the I ni i <<1 States Census. To be sure of my facts. I 

asked my friend, Prof. Colbert, to examine the problem, and. by tak- 
ing in Wisconsin and running west along the boundary between the 
United States and the British possessions to a point sa\ LOO miles 
west of Fori Benton, and thence south to Las Vegas, making instead 
of a triangle a trapezium or irregular geometrical figure. Prof. Col- 
bert found that it< area is undoubtedly the figures I first made. As 
no one, either in astronomical or sublunary calculations, has ever ques- 
tioned the Professor's accuracy, this matter maybe considered as 
settled. 



N'hw mark the magnificent results. As the State of Ohio eon- 
tains a little less than 40;000 square miles, here is space enough to 
form 

SEVENTEEN STATES 

as large as Ohio; and 1 am willing to risk my reputation for the 
future by predicting that before the parting knell shall ring <>ut the 
lasl hour of the year of grace 1976 they will, on an average, he far 
more populous, and vastly richer and mure productive. I have trav- 
eled through Ohio in various directions, and between Lake Michigan 
and the Lower Missouri River in certainly as many: and west of that 
Up the Valley of the .Missouri, the Platte, 'the Kansas, and the Ar- 
kansas, to the Rocky .Mountains, and. therefore, 1 assume to speak 
with some confidence upon this suhject. 

But let ns be more specific, though briefly so. and see what 
the climate, the soil, the topographical character, ami the resources 
of these states, or of the territory that might lie so divided, are now 
known to be. And first, what is most important as to their climate 
and agricultural resources. 

CLIMATE 
has much to do with the productiveness of any country, and there is 
scarcely any topic on which the great public are more at fault 
than in regard to the temperature of the northern sections of our 
country. No greater mistake can be made than to suppose that tin- 
lines of latitude indicate the degree of cold that prevails under them. 
The Gulf Stream carries a warm, delightful climate to England and 
to Western Europe, while Labrador, in the same latitude in North 
America, has an Artie atmosphere the year round. For the same 
reason, the winds from the warm Japan current in the Pacific Ocean, 
crossing the lower northern ranges of the Rocky Mountains, give an 
average temperature not much different from that of St. Paul to the 
great Valley of the Saskatchewan, from tOO to .">II0 miles north id' 
the American boundary. This fact was recently proved by incon- 
testable figures, taken for several years, at different stations, by the 
Hon. James W. Taylor, United States Consul at Winnipeg. Tine, 
they have blizzards there and intensely cold weather, and so they do 
at St. Paul. and. at times, so do we at Chicago. So much for the 
climate of the northern belt of our triangle, and south of it. of course 
it gradually hecomes warmer down to the Arkansas Valley. 



PARTICULARS. 

Let us examine this country by States and Territories. The great 
agricultural riches of Wisconsin and her immense mineral wealth 
are too well known to need extended notice here. The southern half 
of the State lias a very rich soil and produces most of the cereals 
and other farm products in the greatest abundance. The northern half 
has a lighter soil. Init is rich in minerals and lumber. Minnesota 
within the last twenty years has taken her place among the leading 
wheat-producing States of the Union. The southern half of the 
State has a soil of great depth and richness, and like the northern 
sections of Wisconsin, the same sections in Minnesota are very valuable 
for their forests of pine and other important woods. The State is 
splendidly watered hy rivers and beautiful lakes, and is too well known 
to need further remark. It will sustain a large and very pros- 
perous population, and is destined to occupy a leading place among 
the great and growing States of the Union. 

DAKOTA. 

lying directly west of .Minnesota and north of Nebraska (except the 
northeastern and southwestern section), is comparatively unknown. 
When 1 went down the Wed River Valley in 1871 to Winnipeg there 
were only three or four little hamlets north of Morris, the terminus 
of the railway, for some 200 miles or more, all the way to the British 
line. In little more than eight years the valley, both in Minnesota and 
Dakota, has been brought largely under cultivation. Scores id' the 
largest, besl managed, and most productive wheat farms in the United 
States are now to he found in this valley. It looked last .Tune like 
an old settled country. Small farms, as well as those of one, five, 
ten. and even fifty thousand acres, with good houses for the superin- 
tendents, large barns and outhouses for every thousand acres, dotted 
the landscape on every side. Teams, reapers, and thrashers by the score, 
with a small army of men. are required on these princely farms, and 
even the telegraph has been called into requisition to manage them. 
Take as an example the ( "ass-Cheney farm, for 1ST!*. It has been 
opened three years. Bach year new land is broken. This season 
8,170 acres were cultivated, producing 139,823 bushels id' wheat, 
lo.sTT bushels of oats, 6,649 bushels id' barley. The wheat cost less 
than 40 cents per bushed to raise, and sold for 95 cents. The stock 



and implements used consisted of 158 mules, 81 wagons, 32 gang- 
plows, 55 harvesters, 9 separators, 40 seeders, and 104 harrows. 

These facts 1 have from Col. James B. Power, Land-Commis- 
sioner of the Northern Pacific Railway, who lias thousands of acres 
■of equally good land left. He adds that the counties of Cass, Traill, 
Richland, Barnes, Stutsman, Kidder, and Bui'leigh, extending from 
.the Red to the Missouri River in Dakota Territory, show as follows: 

Population in L879 31,500 

Number of farms in 1879 3,815 

Tilled area in 1879, acres 178,020 

New breaking in 1879, acres 117,000 

Area in wheat in 1879, acres 142,000 

Increase in 1ST!' over 1878: Population, 16,600; number of 
farms, 2,918: tilled area, 87,990 acres; area in wheat, 70,290. acres. 

Of the tilled area onlv 10.100 acres are on what are known as the 
""big farms. 

The Government survey reports that Dakota Territory contains 
157.000 square miles, from which nearly four of the seventeen States 
might very readily he carved out. D all lies in the great wheat-belt 
which extends from Iowa to the Peace River Valley in British 
America, some 3,000 miles. For the cultivation of this most valu- 
able cereal a large majority of the lands in the Territory is most 
admirably adapted, and the balance of it affords the finest of pas- 
turage. Even the Cmiteau <lc .Missouri, the long, high dividing ridge 
between the Dakota and the Missouri Kivers. an extensive district, 
till about ten years ago was supposed to be tit only for the residence 
of wild beasts and more savage men. It is now certain that it can 
iill be made valuable for farming purposes. The eastern quarter of 
the Territory is drained by the Red. the Cheyenne, and the Dakota 
•or .lames Rivers; the .Missouri runs through the centre, and the 
Little .Missouri, the Knife, the Heart, the Cannon Ball, the Grand, 
the Moreau. the Cheyenne, and the White Rivers drain the western 
half of the Territory into the Missouri. The soil of all these valleysis 
exceedingly fertile, and the whole of the Dakota and the Bed River 
Valleys are rapidly tilling up with an energetic and industrious peo- 
ple. The same is true id' the southeastern section of the Territory. 
It is found that there is. with the exception of some Strips of the 
Bad Bands, comparatively very little waste land in it. 



8 



At leasts three-fourths of the Territory of 
MONTANA 
lie easl of the Rocky Mountains. The ridges gradually rise higher 
as you approach them, and the river valleys are deeper, but the gen- 
eral description of Dakota will apply to more than half of it. There 
arc here also some sections of the Bad Lauds: but they occupy com- 
paratively bul a small part of the Territory. Where I saw them they 
are composed of black, friable shale, probably the debris of vast coal 
beds burning up in the early history of the planet on top of them. 
It is difficult to form a just estimate of the extent of these two Ter- 
ritories. It takes all day to ride from the Ited to the .Missouri River. 
at Bismarck by the Northern Pacific Railway, ami then you are but 
half way across Dakota. About two-thirds of it lie south of the 
railway. Starting from Bismarck mi the morning of dune 6th, it took 
us till about 1<> o'clock id' the 11th— more than five days -to reach 
Fort Buford, at the mouth of the Yellowstone, and it required eleven 
days more of almost constant steaming to reach Fort Benton. The 
June rise gave us a fine Stage of water. and our delays were very few. 
These eleven days were all in .Montana, as the north and south boun- 
dary runs only a mile or two west of the mouth of the Yellowstone. 
And yet in all the SOI) miles above Bismarck, till near Fort Benton 
there is not a single town or hamlet along the entire, river: forts and 
wood-yards are all the marks of civilization one sees. and the latter cer- 
tainly do not furnish very encouraging specimens of Western civilization; 
bul they are probably quite as good as could be expected. A few 
miles — eleven by land — below Fort Benton, on the 20th of dune, the 
steamer stopped at the ranche of .Mr. Charles Rowe. His fields of 
wheat, potatoes, and other vegetables were in splendid condition. A 
week before he had new potatoes and gooseberyand pie-plant pies for 
dinner. <>n our return trip we took on board 170 .Montana cattle. 
whose large size and line condition would have at once stirred up 
active competition at our Stock- Yards, and which Government con- 
t factors took down below Bismarck to feed splendidly the worthless vaga- 
bond Indians in that fertile and beautiful section of Dakota. These 
cattle had never had a pound of hay to winter them. and. in fact, did 
not know what it is. for they would not eat it till after having been 
starved to it for two or three days on hoard the steamer. These fact- 
are commended to the special attention of those who think this a 



barren, inhospitable country. .Montana is also splendidly watered 
east of the mountains by the Powder, the Tongue, and the Big Horn run- 
ning north into the Yellowstone, by'that river and the Missouri, and 
from the North by the White Earth, the Milk, and the Marias. 

T have been thus particular in describing the topographical and 
the agricultural character of Dakota and Montana in order, as far as 
may be, to dissipate the false impression that they are ton far north for 
successful development. With the swelling tide of emigration now 
beginning to roll over them, the next decade will show the most mar- 
velous result. As to 

IOWA, 

and that portion of Illinois and Northern Missouri lying within our 
triangle, all the world now knows them to be the very garden of the 
Mississippi Valley. They are passed by. therefore, without further 
notice. 

NEBRASKA 

has rightly assumed the place of one of the most prosperous States 
in the Union within the last fifteen years. Her progress lias been a 
marvel of energy and success. When the Colfax party went up the 
Platte Valley in a stage-coach in 1865, there were a few scattered 
settlements and cities on paper along the Missouri River, and Fort 
Kearney, with a few houses sourrounding it. with stage stations at 
regular intervals, were all the signs of life we found to the west line 
of the. State, and. in fact all the way to Denver. For 200 miles or 
more there were new-made graves to mark the slaughter id' white 
men, and women, and children by the murderous redskins the year 
before. The Union Pacific Railway has changed all this, and now 
farms, and hamlets, and thriving towns dot the Valley of the Platte 
all the way to the mountains. And it should lie known that this 
great valley, prosperous and growing rapidly as it is. is by no means 
the best part of the State. The country on either side beyond the 
bluffs that bound it is richer by far than what the tourist sees as he 
dashes by on the cars in the Platte Valley. It is a rich, rolling prairie, 
well watered, and is still rapidly settling by an energetic thrifty pop- 
ulation. The Valleys of the Niobrara, the Klkhoru, and theLoup-Fork 
drain the northern half id' the State. The Platte sweeps nearly 
through its centre from west to east, while the Republican and other 



10 

streams drain the southern sections. Notice the figures of this year's 

census if ymi want to sot' how ignorant the old geographers were 
when they marked a Large portion of Nebraska and Kansas as the 
(ireat American Desert. 

KANSAS 

i> admitted to lie one the best and most prosperous States in the 
Union. Its rich rolling prairies were the battle-ground between 
slavery and its opponents in 1853 <>. Freedom won in the contest, 
and hence followed the War id' the Rebellion. Slavery was crushed 
out. and •• Liberty was proclaimed throughout all the land unto all the 
inhabitants thereof."' The rapid settlement of Kansas and its won- 
derful progress in population and wealth have amply proved that the 
State was well worth all the efforts each side made to win it. Per- 
haps more than half of the State is now well settled, and the next 
decade will bring the western half under cultivation. The Arkansas 
and the Kansas Rivers, with their scores id' tributaries, furnish abun- 
dant drainage. It is conceded already to be one of the leading States 
of the Mississippi Valley. 
The eastern corner of 

WYOMING 

and the half of Colorado and the corner (if New Mexico coming 
within our base line lie within what is called the "rainless belt:" but 
the soil of the high-rolling ridges is good, and is covered with an 
abundance of buffalo grass like nearly all of eastern .Montana. Ne- 
braska, and Kansas. They were the home of the buffalo for untold 
ages. Here they roamed by tens of millions, furnishing the Indians 
with plenty id' food, and where so large and so powerful an animal in 
such vast numbers can live, surely the most extensive herds of cattle 
can flourish ami grow fat. I wrote home in 1865, when I first saw 
this wonderful country, that it must become the great mcat-produciim 
section of the Union, but ' little expected to see this prediction veri- 
fied before the year of grace 1880. Now of this 

RAINLESS BELT 

this may be said. Whatever may be the cause, it is now generally 
admitted that the line of sufficient rainfall for ordinary farming pur- 
poses is steadily though gradually moving westward. Whether it be 



11 

the telegraph and railway lines, or the settlement of the country, or 
;ill these, with perhaps other causes combined, the future scientist 
will probably be aide to determine. Certainly it rained one-third of 
the time last June when 1 was on the Upper .Missouri, and it was 
abundant for all farming purposes. The experience of 2.000 years in 
Italy and elsewhere lias shown that irrigation from mountain streams 
is a safer and a better reliance for successful husbandry than to de- 
pend u | ion the rains of Heaven ; and so it has Keen proved in Colorado. 
In winter the snow falls in vast quantities on the lofty mountain 
ranges : it melts in the spring and early summer, and tin' water comes 
down in abundance, charged with ammonia and various mineral stimu- 
lants just when they are most needed by the growing and maturing 
<-ro]is. Colorado now produces nearly all the food consumed in her 
mining districts. Her wheat is among the very finest grown upon 
the continent. A belt id' territory perhaps from twenty to forty 
miles wide east id' the mountains is now regarded as among the best 
farming districts in the country. Whatever territory lies between 
the irrigating belt and the line of sufficient rainfall is covered with 
buffalo grass, furnishing the most nutritious food for cattle know not 
the grazier. But within the last year a species of millet called 

HICK Oft EGYPTIAN CORN 

lias been introduced, which may materially assist to solve the pro- 
blem of this rainless licit. The facts in regard to it I learned on my 
trip to New Mexico last September, from James Hollingsworth, Esq., 
of this city. His ranche is situated near Kinsley. )>1<> miles west of 
Kansas City, in the dry belt. From the facts given me by him I 
wrote home to The Tribune as follows: 

"He had forty acres of sod turned over last spring, and. having 
procured several quarts of the seed, with an ordinary seed-planter he 
deposited two or three grains a foot or two apart in the sod. There 
had not been a drop of rain for the previous eight months, and it did 
not rain fur five weeks after the planting; yet the seed germinated. 
The corn came up and grew finely. After it got fairly started, the 
hot blasts came up from the Llano Estacado (Staked Plains). burning up 
the grass and every green thing in the gardens, scorching like the 
blasts from a furnace, yet it did not affect the new-comer from Egypt 
;i particle. It grew right along in spite of the heat. Then the rains 



12 

came on, and the sturdy grain, was equally indifferent to that. It 
grew righl on, and ripened about the 1st of September, yielding, Mr. 
Hollingsworth thought, sonic sixty bushels to the acre, weighing 
sixty pounds to the bushel. From the top of the stalk a tuft some- 
thing like that of sorghum issues; this soon droops over, and the 
wholebunch is one mass (if the main. The Kernel isabout the sizeofa 
grain of wheat, perhaps a little smaller, and more nearly round. Each 
one is inclosed in a shuck or independent capsule. The grain can be 
ground into an excellent flour, from which bread and other food can 
lie made: it can be boiled and eaten as rice or cracked wheat, and in 
fact can he used for any purpose for which our ordinary cereals are 
employed. A neighbor of Mr. Hollingsworth, who raised a small 
crop last year, assured him that it fattened pigs faster than he had 
ever known common corn or any other feed to do it. 

"Now. the only thing about this story is that it seems almost too 
good to he true. Had not so reliable a gentleman as 1 know .James 
Hollingsworth to be, given me the above facts. I should not have 
dared to have given this account to the public/' 

•• And yet. Mr. 11. adds in a circular. " the article as written by 
(iov. Bross is substantially accurate. The stalk isabout the con- 
sistency of corn, and makes precisely as good fodder as the coin stalk. 
For sheep or cattle, and especially Iambs, no hotter feed can he raised. 

The yield is nearer 70 than 60 bushels to the acre, and, with proper 
culture. 1 am satisfied it will yield 1011 bushels. Indeed. 1 think I 
have some sections on my ranche that will yield KM) bushels." 

What millions on millions of value is in this cereal, new to us. if 
il only fulfills the promise made by .Mr. Hollingsworth's experience.* 

A general description of the topography of the country between 
the lakes and the Rocky Mountains would represent it as a vast 

PLATEAU 

extending from our northern boundary, and, in fact, from far north in 
the British Possessions, down to the Gulf of .Mexico. The little 
Rocky and the Bear Paw Mountains in Montana and the Black Hills. 
and the O/.arks of Missouri, are mere specks upon it. scarcely notice- 
able on its immensity. 

The land between the Bakes and the Mississippi, and between that 

* Sonic of the coin, witli one of (lie heads, were presented lo the Society. 



13 

river and the Missouri, rises to a very considerable hight, with a gen 
era] trend of its long sweeping ridges tn tlie south, and from the 
Rocky Mountains east and southeast to the .Missouri. Scarcely any of 
tins wonderful plateau is level. Nearly all id' it is drained by such 
gradual slopes that its immense rivers are navigable tor steamers for 
thousands of miles. On the Mississippi and the Missouri — taken to- 
gether the longest water-course in the world — steamers ply between 
the Grulf of Mexico and Fort Benton, near the base of the Rocky 
Mountains, a distance of 3,933 miles. Their navigable tributaries 
are told in scores and hundreds, and they branch off from the main 
arteries in all directions. Now. when it is remembered that in all this 
immense plateau there is probably not as much waste land by moun- 
tain and morass, all told, as there is in the single State of New York; 
when one bids his mind's eye range over these hundreds of thousands 
of square miles of rich, rolling prairie, with nothing to vex the plow as 
it glides onward and turns over the teeming mold, can he fail to see 
in the not distant future a hundred millions of intelligent, happy, 
prosperous freemen dwelling in peace and in wealth in this broad, 
God-blessed land? And does it need any doubtful stretch of fact or 
fancy to see its chief commercial capital, one of the largest and the 
richest and most powerful cities the sun has ever beheld in all his 
course ? 

So much for the agricultural resources of this great country, and 
now for a paragraph on its 

MINERAL RICHES. 

To meet the want of fuel on our prairies. Providence has kindly 
provided for the millions who are to live upon them an abundant sup- 
ply of coal for all domestic and manufacturing purposes. The de- 
posits are practically exhaustless in Illinois and Iowa, and it is safe 
to say that all along the base id' the Rocky Mountains, from the Sas- 
katchewan to Mexico, the country is underlaid with coal, the veins of 
which for scores of miles arc id' surprising depth and richness. No 
nation on earth is so well supplied with this essential element of our 
modern civilization. In it the political economist sees the possibili- 
ties of unlimited growth in wealth and all that is desirable in our 
modern prosperity and progress. 

This abundance of coal is supplemented by what is perhaps equally 
essential. — iron deposits of the very best quality and in unlimited 



14 

quantities. The mines along the southern shore of Lake Superior, 
both for richness and extent, cannot be excelled, and give promise of 
an unlimited supply. No bounds can be placed upon the output of 
copper from the Lake Superior mines, except the demand which the 
markets of the country may choose to make. Lead about Galena and 
elsewhere is found ill the greatest abundance. 

In regard to the precious metals, something like the language of 
fable must be used to give an adequate account of the richness of the 
country along our base line of 00(1 miles, for our triangle is all but- 
tressed with mountains whose rock-ribbed vaults are tilled with ores 
of surpassing extent and value. Only twenty yearsagogold was dis- 
covered on Clear Creek, in the district then eroneously called Pike > 
Peak, and now Colorado alone is fast approaching the best results 
that Nevada ever yielded. Last year she gave the country over 
$19,000,000 worth of silver, half the product id' the whole country, 
about $12,000,000 id' which was produced in the Leadville district. 
The Pacific coast still leads largely in the yield of gold; but Cali- 
fornia and the countries adjacent thereto must look to their laurels, 
or Montana. Colorado, and New .Mexico will distance them in the 
value ol the precious metals produced yearly before the next decade 
shall have passed away. What effect the pourittg down of such a vast 
amount of coin among the millions of people now and soon to dwell 
upon the rich agricultural States between Lake .Michigan and the 
Rocky Mountains let him estimate who has the ability and the cour- 
age to do so. 

COMMERCIAL FACILITIES. 

\\ ithout adequate means for the interchange of their industries 
and the export of their surplus products to foreign nations, the people 
of a country however rich cannot achieve an enlarged and a perma- 
nent prosperity. for this the enterprise, the wealth of the Nation, 
and the energy of our people have furnished the Central States with 
the most ample facilities. Besides the thousands of miles of steam- 
boat navigation on our rivers, scores of railways have gone trooping 
over the country in all directions, bridging the Mississippi and the 
Missouri as if it were a mere pastime, and still they go pressing on- 
ward to the mountains. Their dark, gloomy, and as it was supposed 
impassable canyons echo the wild scream of the locomotive, and the 



15 



saucy little baby engine, powerful as it is saucy, has leaped over their 
lofty passes more than nine and eleven thousand feet above the sea. 
The St. Paul and the Northwestern are running a race through 
Dakota to the Black Hills ; the Northern Pacific ami the Atchison, 
Topeka & Santa Fe are driving rapidly onward to the Pacific Ocean ; 
while the Central Pacific line lias for ten years been pouring the tea, 
the silks, and the spices of Asia into our warehouses for distribution 
all thi'ough the .Mississippi Valley. It is safe to say that no country 
in the world of equal extent is so abundantly supplied with facilities 
for transport and travel as that between Lake Michigan and the Rocky 
.Mountains. Parenthetically it may be here said that in the old 
Roman Empire not only upon the conqueror of nations, hut upon him 
who built the most roads and the best bridges, was conferred the 
highest honors. He was Pontifex Maxim us.— the greatest bridge- 
builder, — a title the Pope is proud to retain to the present day. 
What a noble monument should therefore be reared to the memory of 
John F. Tracy, who built the Mississippi bridge at Rock Island, and. 
first id' all others against the money and the power id' St. Louis and 
the entire river interest combined, fought the battle through the 
United States courts, and secured the right to keep it there. Hence 
every river in the Nation can now be bridged. And what a high posi- 
tion will history give to the names of William B. Ogden, .John B. 
Turner, Henry Farnum. and a score or more of their compeers, who 
directed and gave energy to that pablic opinion which has enabled 
their successors, (loy. Stanford and Thomas C. Durant, to push their 
lines oyer the mountains and entirely across the Continent! And 
now come Frederick Billings with H. E. Sargent, and William B. 
Strong with his Boston crowd, determined soon to give us two other 
lines to the Pacific Ocean. Has not each one of them ah*eady he- 
come in reality, on his own line, and not in mere name a Pontifex 
Maximus '! 

These lines to the westward are supplemented by water transit 
eastward through our magnificent lakes and the Erie and Canadian 
Canals. and by five or six great railway lines to the Atlantic seaboard. It 
may as well be added in this connection that the traffic of our mer- 
chants extends from the south side of our triangle, through Texas. 
along the Atlantic seaboard, all the way round to the Dominion of 
Canada. Immense shipments or grain and provisions are made on 



16 

through bills of lading to all the ports in Western Europe. Our 
wholesale merchants have buyers in all the Eastern States, and in all 
the leading cities and manufacturing districts of Europe, with cash 
in hand to buy at bottom prices whatever goods this market may re- 
quire, so that New York dealers — as Stewart & Co., and others, have 
Pound indispensabh — have been forced to establish branch houses in 
this city. Beyond a doubt the branch will, in a very few years, become 
the main central establishment. Chicago manufacturers of railway 
supplies and agricultural and other implements make frequent ship- 
ments to both sides of the continent : to Europe and to the islands 
of the Pacific Ocean. Hence while the country west of ns must be 
died on mainly for the growth of the city, it should be added that 
her lake and canal navigation, — the Illinois & Michigan must not be 
forgotten. — her Eastern railway system, and her Southern, Eastern, 
and European trade are all immense factors in determining the ele- 
ments of her past and future prosperity. 

STATISTICS. 

A paragraph on her past growth and present business is appropri- 
ate here. Let us take a period of twenty-five years. In 1838, one 
year after the city was organized, the first shipment of wheat, seventy- 
eight bushels, was made eastward by the lakes.* In 1854, twenty-five 
years ago, the receipts of wheat had risen to 3,038,955 bushels: last 
year they were 39,358,014, — a wonderful increase, surely. The re- 
ceipts of corn for 1 s.")4 were 7,490,753, last year they were 62,164,238 
bushels. The total receipts of cereals for 1 S.")4 were 12,902,310 
bushels; last year they were 137,624,833, and their value is told by 

* It should be known thai these historical 78 bushels of wheal were 
shipped in ban's lo Buffalo on board a steamer by the late Charles 
Walker, one of i he most far-seeing and best business men Chicago ever 
had. The history of the nexl shipment, in 1839, of B.678 bushels, on 
board the brig Osceola, is scarcely less interesting. It was made by New 
berry & Dole, whose warehouse was then on the North Side, imme- 
diately east of where Rush street bridge now stands. The wheal was 
bought from farmers' wagons and hoisted to the upper story by Irish 
power, with rope and pully. The problem of loading i1 on the brig was 
solved by fixing a spoul in one of the upper doors and making i1 gradual- 
ly narrower till it readied the deck, where the wheat was discharged into 
boxes holding four bushels, weighed, ami transferred to the bold of the 
vessel. From the bins holding the wheat in the upper story a row of men 
was formed who passed it in buckets, precisely similar to the means used 
to pass buckets of walcraf a lire before the introduction of engines. Sub- 
sequently the linn lmilt a warehouse on the South Side, immediately 



17 

$78,080,000. The number of hogs received in 1854 was 74.:5:i!i : last 
year the receipts were 6,488;935. ( >f cattle the statistics show 23,691 
received in 1 So4 : last year the number was 1,215,672. and the total 
value of the live stock handled was $107,310,000. 

Total value of the produce trade $353,000,000 

Wholesale trade 841.ooo.oihi 

Manufactures 236,500,000 

Total $830,500,000 

From this The Tribune's commercial editor deducts $66,500,000 for 
articles manufactured here and also sold at wholesale leasing the 
actual value of trade of the city for the last year $764,000,000. These 
results seem almost fabulous and could not he credited were they not 
gathered hy experts with the greatest care from authentic sources. 
The population of the city in 1 S.">4 was 65.872; everybody now 
believes that the census about to he taken will give us at least 
450,000. As another index of Western growth it may he stated 
that Illinois was admitted into the (Jnion in ISIS, only sixty-two 
years ago. taking her place at the foot id' the States. Since then 
her march has been onward and upward, till the census of this year 
will place her ahead of Ohio and next to Pennsylvania, the third State 
in the [Jnion. Doubtless Wisconsin. Minnesota. Kansas. Nebraska, 
and Colorado would show equally marvelous results, were not this 
article already too long to present the statistics to prove it. 



west of Clark street bridge. Business increasing, a common horse-power 
arrangement was introduced to run an elevating belt and thus, raise the 
wheat to the top story. The endless treddle on which the horse traveled 
was in the way, and besides it made a great deal of noise. Hence his 
tramway was transferred to the upper story, and witli straps and pulleys 
a party of sailors soon transferred the faithful animal to the same local 
ity, where be lived and traveled seven years without ever setting foot on 
terra firma. All the warehouses along the river were operated in the 
same way when I wrote the commercial for our paper, then the Demo- 
cratic Press 1852-5. The brothers George P . and Julian S. Rumsey, 
nephews of Mr. Dole, were his clerks, and, with Ex-Alderman Granger, 
rigged out this machinery, then considered a great advance in the hand 
ling of grain. They are all still in the city, and the Rumseys are among 
our largest commission merchants. This tramping of the old horse al the 
to]) of the warehouse only forty years ago furnished the beginnings of our 
seventeen splendid elevators, with a capacity of 17,350,000 bushels. AM 
this in the short space of forty years. It may be added as a health item 
that Colonel G. 8. Hubbard, who came herein 1M1H, and who has lived 
at the West ever since, with <). F. Rumsey and a large number of our 
older citizens, were present al the meeting. 



IS 

But however great the extent, the salubrity, the agricultural ami 
the mineral resources of any country may he. a strong, an industrious, a 
free, an intellectual, and a moral people must live upon and develop 
it in order that it may take and hold a commanding position in the 
current affairs ami in the history of the world. Now. where else upon 
earth, it may he asked, can you find a people whose character is in all 
respects better fitted to work out all that is good and great and noble 
in our Christian civilization ? They are the men and the women sifted 
out. as it were, from the most enterprising sons and daughters of the 
old States and from nearly all the nations id' Europe. Among man- 
kind, as elsewhere in Nature, ''blood will tell. It is tlie mixture of 
the powerful races id' Western Europe that lias wrought out for the 
English the proud distinction of being the Romans of the nineteenth 
century. Now. where or when was there ever such a mingling of the 
blood of SO many powerful races as can he found among the dwellers 
of the country west id' and around Lake Michigan ? They act every- 
where on the g 1 old Puritan principle of planting churches and 

schools in every town and hamlet in the land, and colleges in suffi- 
cient number to give a liberal education to all who have the energy 
and the intelligence to seek it. It is believed that in these Central 
States the problem of what a whole people educated, industrious, and 
with the highest moral appliances can accomplish is to he wrought out 
for the first time in the history of the world. Let the philanthropist 
and the statesman estimate if they can the heneficient effect it will 
surely have upon the welfare id' the race. 

1 have spoken id' the country and its character ami resources 
that is tributary to Chicago, and of the people who inhabit it. But 
St. Louis, Milwaukee, Omaha, Kansas City. Denver, and a hundred 
other growing cities may exclaim, Do you leave nothing for us? 
Certainly, all that your position and your energy can achieve : lint, 
hless you. friends, the more you prosper, the more you all will con- 
tribute to the wealth and the prosperity of Chicago. Shehas not a par- 
ticle of jealousy in her nature. Now. in regard to the country west 
of and surrounding Chicago, with such an energetic, intelligent, 
Christain people to develop it. ami also in regard to such progress as 
she has made in the past. I submit that I have stated only the facts. 
I have "entered on no encomium upon Chicago. She needs none. Her 
pas! is at least secure. Here she is. and here she, will remain, 
forever. 



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